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Browser bookmarks used to organize BB topics

AdminAdminMember
There are now 10 pages of threads in the "Course Measurement" discussion area. These threads cover many different topics, and if you are interested in reading about one particular topic, it's tedious to find all the threads related to that topic.

I have investigated different ways to re-organize the threads so people could find things more easily:

1) Replace the current organization with a more refined organization. The main problem with this is that there are many posts where people have linked to other threads. All of these links would be lost, and this is not acceptable.

2) Create a second structure that contains mostly "shortcuts" to the threads in the original structure. This would work, but I feel it would be very cumbersome to have a whole double structure like this. (I did do a little of this with the new measurer area because I felt having that new area was important).

I finally decided that I could create this second structure completely outside the measurment bulletin board by doing it with web browser bookmarks. I have started work on this for the Electronic Measurement area as shown below

Once this is done I can make the bookmarks available. Anyone who wanted them would just need to "import" them into their browser.

This weekend I'll start work on creating a structure for topics in the Course Measurent area.

Anyone who'd like to help with this is more than welcome!
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M mikesandfordMember
An excellent idea Mark. This sort of indexing work is sorely needed on many message boards, but is rarely attempted, let alone done well.

I think you should not only link to threads. Some threads are long and may cover a number of aspects, and thus there will be occasions when a subsidiary posting would be worth highlighting with a link to the individual post in question.

Some care will be needed with the bookmark title to make it really useful. It wont always be the thread title. Or perhaps an additional word or two will help.

I think this will make a very useful index of knowledge. Better than just bookmarks to be imported into a browser which is just the starting point, we will need it on a web page which is well linked so people are led to the index. Could you put a link to the index as an additional item in the board header? Alternatively create a new top level category called Index. Place one post in it which is your index. Update the post when necessary. Perhaps place a subforum called Index in each of the main categories: Course Measurement, Course Certification Discussion Area etc.
AdminAdminMember
Finally getting back to this.
I have looked for a way to export bookmarks to an html file that will retain the folder structure but have not been able to find anything.
Instead, I have simply exported the bookmarks to a flat html file, but renamed the folders so that the structure is maintained based on the folder names (which then appear as headers before the bookmarks).
Take a look and see what you think.

http://www.dukerdog.com/USATF/...tin_Board/index.html

Once you go to the page, from the Firefox menu you can select File>Save Page As... and save the file to your computer. Then you can import the file to the bookmarks of your web browser. Then you'll have the folder structure within your web browser. Or you can just bookmark the page itself and use the flat version.

Not sure what the process is to save a web page with other browsers but it's probably similar.

This is just a start. I haven't done a bookmark index for all the topics on the forum, but I'm working on it. I'll provide updates periodically.
Last edited by Admin

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